Seven years.

It had been seven years since Cullen had last seen Faye Amell or Alistair Theirin, but he should have figured that they'd managed to stick together even after the Blight.

Ask for help from the King, and you got the Warden Commander of Ferelden as well.

Cullen sat behind Meredith's - no, his desk now - with his head in his hands. There were stacks of paper everywhere - neatly organized into piles for complaints and support letters from civilians, damage fees from Kirkwall's Maintenance division, pleas from mages, a message from the Divine herself - no matter how he attempted to make sense of the mess spread across the office, it seemed like the list of things he needed to deal with would never end.

"Ser, Knight Commander, there's a- a mage, not one of ours, she wants to see you-" Avery, one of the newer recruits and the only of their newest batch to survive the recent...incident, came running down the hall, Templar armor clanging with each step, and yelling his message in a hoarse voice.

Cullen didn't bother to look up, too preoccupied with his musings of tossing his armor out the window and taking a permanent vacation in sunny Rivain. Blast Meredith for leaving him with all of this. "Inform her that I'm preoccupied with some important business at the moment and that she's free to schedule a proper appointment with me at a later time."

"No Commander, you don't understand, she's-"

"Excuse me, thank you ser." A gentle but firm voice spoke up, accompanying what sounded like a soft nudge (or a shove - their armor made abominable amounts of noise either way) to Ser Avery. Cullen heard the door shut and sighed.

"Serrah, I do not appreciate you barging into my office. You might understand that recent events in Kirkwall have not made the people here look kindly upon mages, regardless of your origins."

There was a light laugh, before the mage spoke again. "So very serious, Cullen? You don't look preoccupied, you appear to be brooding." Cullen looked up immediately - there had been a time, many long years ago, when hearing his name said by that voice's particular inflection was a rare and precious gift that he'd treasured. Even now, he still recognized it.

"...Amell. Or do you prefer Warden Commander now?"

The smile fell from her face, though Faye gamely tried to continue the line of familiarity. "Faye is fine, for an old friend. I believe you were the one who once told me that things wouldn't fix themselves on their own. I'm simply here to return the favor."

"We may have been acquaintances once, but it's been a long time since then. We're different people - there's no need to pretend this is some grand reunion. What is it you needed, Warden Commander?" Cullen returned stiffly. He focused his gaze on his papers again, trying to calculate how thinly he would have to spread his men in order to cover everything that needed to be guarded or secured or repaired...

Faye's eyes, indigo blue as ever, went flat and cold as she slid the mask of the Warden Commander over her face. If this was what Cullen wanted - then, then fine. This was what she'd give him.

"Officially, I'm here representing both the Grey Wardens and King Alistair of Ferelden. His Majesty would send more help if he could, but Ferelden's Circle is causing a great deal of fuss now - if you remember, it was given significant if not complete independence from Chantry control after the Blight and with the recent uprisings...Alistair's doing all he can just to keep his own country from falling apart, he can't spare much to aid Kirkwall."

"I'm not entirely surprised that the King would turn to you for diplomatic aid, considering your work during the Blight, but how does this relate to the Grey Wardens?" Cullen meant no harm by the question, despite his rough tone. It was not exactly how he'd pictured spending his morning, seeing his former adolescent crush for the first time in seven years.

He glanced up very quickly again, still trying to appear as if he was engrossed in his work. Perhaps not entirely former. She'd only grown into her looks as she grew and where before she had been pretty, now she was beautiful - even accounting for the scars.

His rapid observation missed the flash of anguish that twisted across her face for a moment.

"As representative of the Grey Wardens and the one who was once in direct command of him, I am here to reconfirm that Warden Anders was an inactive member of the Order and was released from service approximately five years ago soon after his part in the Battle of Amaranthine. Thus, the Order takes no credit or blame for his actions from 9:32 forward, including his-" Faye's voice broke for a second before she continued - "joining with the spirit Justice and the destruction of the Kirkwall Chantry. The Order has and still wishes to remain neutral in the ongoing debate between the mages and the Chantry and has no wish to associate itself with any concerns not related to darkspawn."

There was a deep inhale as Faye caught her breath from the lengthy message. "Now that my initial messages have been delivered, unless you have further use for me at this time I will take my leave and go to the Viscount. It's only recently come to my attention that I apparently share blood with Kirkwall's Champion."

After a short pause, Cullen finally rose from the desk. Faye's breath caught in her throat - Maker, it was so easy to forget small things, like how tall Cullen was, or how hard it was to look away when one could get him to focus his gaze on you. (In the old days, getting Cullen to look her in the eye was a rare thing that brightened her week immensely - now she had the feeling it was something he did regularly, and not quite as sweetly as he once did)

"You've listed all your official reasons," he said, voice deep and rich as that Orlesian drink made ofchocolat, "But I've yet to hear any sort of unofficial reason for your visit."

Faye smiled weakly and headed for the door, stopping to twist her head back for her final words.

"Unofficially, I'm just here because I wanted to help someone who once meant a great deal to me. Alistair didn't have send me - I asked to come."

With that, she strode out of his office.

Cullen immediately collapsed back into his chair and groaned. Sometimes it seemed like the Maker was mocking him.

Seven years or not, he was hit with the sparkling clear revelation that it would be far too easy to fall in love with Faye Amell all over again.

[A/N - Another part of the headcanon AU, this one takes place after the lovely finale of DA2. Hawke sided with the Templars and became Viscount. She technically killed Anders but...we'll get to what happened to him (and her) eventually. Faye and Cullen haven't seen each other since the events of Broken Circle. He's, uh, still not too happy with her...]